If you’re still bobbing for Dylans after I’m Not There, dig Theme Time Radio Hour, the best show anywhere. Thanks, Bill, for this WaPostory about the sandpaper-smooth DJ with a nose for goofy trivia and a weakness for women’s names.

Is text-messaging the solution for administrations dealing with crises like the one at Virginia Tech? It might be.

Speaking of writers for the magazine, I reviewed Paul Hoffman’s new book about lives spent puzzling out heady and confounding strategies in chess games and in families (for Newsday); it’s called King’s Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World’s Most Dangerous Game.

Comments

I really enjoyed reading the Saul Steinberg story out of Texas. I hope the mural can be saved.

It reminds me of (possible) urban myth in the old New Yorker art department in the former offices on 44th (or 43rd if you like). I was told a couple of times that there are walls there covered in cartoons from contributors from the 1930s to 1980s. Has anyone else heard of this? Is there a room with Thurber, Arno, Addams originals drawn on the walls?

Framed and hanging in the current offices are a few Thurber drawings on slabs of plaster from the old offices. I was told the previous landlord claimed ownership but lost the argument. I don’t know if any more were left behind.

The blog’s now treading the territories of punctuation, publications, movies, design, and other things that stir me.

Over the years, I’ve worked with a brilliant brigade of culture writers, editors, and artists. You can read all about the people who've helped build Emdashes here at “Who We?” (That’s a New Yorker joke. Old habits die hard.)

I welcome submissions, questions, corrections, and ardent, obsessive contributors. I also host occasional book-related contests and giveaways. Questioners and publishers, just email me.